Sporting a striped button up and navy cardigan with neatly combed hair, 87-year-old Dick Reimer appears dapper as ever in his cozy home office in Maple Grove. A true renaissance man, Reimer has developed entire cities, played drums with the likes of the Andrew Sisters and Peggy Lee, served in the U.S. Navy, and raised a family of five. Reimer sits today tapping his toes as he watches the Classic Big Band, with whom Reimer has played drums for a number of years. A smile spreads across his face as the band strikes up a favorite Glenn Miller tune, “In the Mood.”
Reimer grew up in Minneapolis, where he realized his first love—music—at age 6. A dynamic drummer, Reimer shined in the North High School swing band. Upon graduation, he joined the Navy, where he toured from 1942 to 1946.

When Reimer returned from the war, he went directly back to his music-man ways. Among other local gigs, he drummed along on famous broadcast journalist Cedric Adams’ popular WCCO radio show Stairway to Stardom every Saturday. It wasn’t long before Reimer realized it was difficult to make a steady income with a show here and there. “In those days, a three-hour job only paid $12,” Reimer says with a chuckle. Coupling this epiphany with future aspirations of owning a house, Reimer took up a day job at Fireside Realty, moving his music gigs to the evening hours.

Reimer retired from real estate in 1965; he eventually launched Reimer Construction, which built nearly 50 homes in Brooklyn Center and New Hope. Two years before his entrepreneurial venture, he was elected to Maple Grove’s city council. (The role of chairman of the planning commission in the early 1950s was his first position of leadership with the city.) “When I ran my first planning commission meeting, I turned to the person next to me and asked, ‘What do you do? I never ran a meeting before,’” Reimer says.